Archer, Burger power Rajasthan Royals into playoffs

Jofra Archer delivered a stunning all-round performance to power Rajasthan Royals to a 30-run victory over the Mumbai Indians – and the final place in next week’s Tata IPL playoffs – at a steaming Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.

Archer blasted three sixes in his 15-ball 32 to help Royals recover from 122 for five after 14 overs to total a challenging 205 for eight after they had been put into bat by the hosts. The England paceman then grabbed the wicket of Rohit Sharma in his opening over – the sixth time he has achieved the feat in this year’s competition. He then bowled Naman Dhir before returning to the attack in the 16th over to capture the vital wicket of Hardik Pandya (34) who had helped Suryakumar Yadav add a dangerous 48 off 25 balls for the sixth wicket. Archer finished with an outstanding return of 3/17 off his four overs.

Earlier, Yadav (60 in 42 balls, only his second half-century in this year’s competition) had combined with Will Jacks (33 off 18 balls) to add 63 off 39 balls for the fifth wicket to begin a recovery after Mumbai had lost four wickets in the powerplay.

But after Yadav was dismissed, brilliantly caught and bowled by Nandre Burger, Mumbai’s resistance fizzled out as Mumbai were restricted to 175 for nine.

It was a sad send-off for the former champions who finished ninth in the table. They had hoped for a better finish having invited thousands of disadvantaged children to attend the match.

Mumbai’s hopes had been raised earlier in the day when they claimed three wickets in the power play, including RR's key opening combo of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

The free-scoring Jaiswal (27 off 17) was the first to go in the fourth over, skying Will Jacks to point, before his prolific partner, Sooryavanshi, followed him, top-edging seamer Deepak Chahar to deep point. Royals skipper Riyan Parag was the third to go off the final ball of the power play, mistiming offspinner AM Glazanfar to long-on where Tilak Varma took a fine catch on the boundary’s edge.

Mumbai were dead set on a happy ending to a tough season, with their fielders cutting off runs and taking fine catches. Although there were no half-century partnerships, Rajasthan’s run-scoring temp built as the innings progressed and the home team ran out of steam in the stifling conditions. A total of 73 runs came off the last five overs with Archer leading the way, well supported by Ravindra Jadeja (19* off 11 balls) and Burger (10* off three balls) who added 30 for the ninth wicket in just 13 balls.

MUMBAI INDIANS: Ryan Rickelton (wk), Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Will Jacks, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, AM Ghazanfar, Raghu Sharma

RAJASTHAN ROYALS: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (c), Donovan Ferreira, Shubham Dubey, Dasun Shanaka, Jofra Atcher, Nandre Burger, Yash Raj Punja, Brijesh Sharma